State pensioners urged to claim extra £2,915 payments | Personal Finance | Finance
State pensioners are being urged to claim more than £1,800 in payments they are missing out on – and in some cases an extra £2,915 they’re entitled to.
Cash-strapped pensioners have lost their Winter Fuel Payments and face rising energy bills, but there is still an average of £1,807 per pensioner which retirees are entitled to which is not being claimed, according to campaign group Just Group.
Just Group’s 15th annual State Benefits insight report found that eight in 10 (79%) pensioner homeowners were failing to claim any of the benefits they were eligible to receive, missing out on an average of £1,807 a year extra income.
They said nearly one in nine who were claiming were receiving too little, missing out on an average of an extra £2,915 a year.
Stephen Lowe, group communications director at the retirement specialist Just Group said: “Despite the focus on benefit as a result of the government’s decision to axe Winter Fuel Payments to millions, our survey once again shows the scandalous scale of the underclaiming problem.
“Of the one-third of pensioner homeowners eligible for benefits, the proportion failing to claim remains very high while the amounts unclaimed are larger than for more than a decade. This is real cash that should be helping low-income pensioners deal with the cost-of-living crisis.
“Figures for Pension Credit – the main means-tested benefit for older people – are particularly worrying because it is a gateway to other benefits such as Winter Fuel Payment. Only about one in 10 pensioners are eligible but we found 90% of them were missing out.”
The highest amount of extra income uncovered was £145.37 a week due to a couple in their mid-70s living in Suffolk. Although not claiming anything, the advisers found they were eligible each week for £95.26 Guaranteed Pension Credit, £19.04 Savings Pension Credit and £31.07 Council Tax Reduction – a total of £7,560 a year extra income.
In total, more than half (58%) of those missing out on income were entitled to benefits worth at least £1,000 a year.
Guarantee Pension Credit is the main benefit targeted at helping low-income pensioners. It was being claimed by only one in 10 of those pensioner homeowners who were eligible. Households failing to claim were losing an average £1,391 extra income per year.
Savings Pension Credit – only 8% were eligible for the ‘top up’ benefit for low-income pensioners who have modest savings. Only a quarter (25%) of those eligible were claiming, with the average annual loss £933 per household.
Council Tax Reduction should be claimed by nearly three in 10 (29%) of households, but only a quarter of those were actually claiming with the average annual loss £1,067.
Universal Credit – about a third of the lifetime mortgage enquiries who received advice were below State Pension age, potentially eligible for Universal Credit. Although actual eligibility rates were low, the take-up rate was just 50% with those households not claiming missing out on £2,626 on average.
Overall, 64% of those eligible to claim were missing just one of the key benefits, 12% were missing out on two benefits and 12% on three benefits. That leaves just 12% claiming all that they were entitled to.
